The main limiting factor right now for the jealousy for men program is ONLY traffic building.

The sales page is right, it converts really well.

Now, before launching this new traffic building campaign, I feel that something might still be missing...

Here are some open questions:

First one is that this is going to be one month of focus.

With the same energy, there are quite a few other projects I could focus on

The second big question is that my energy might not be 100% free and still invested or going in other directions that take way part of my energy.

In other terms, there might be some lack of focus and synergy in my whole system.

I want to check this further to analyze REALLY what is going on.

The first doubt that comes to mind has to do with traffic building versus simply creating quality content.

For instance, when I create videos, that's simply creating content and eventually some of these videos direct some traffic to my site.

The question is: should I rather focus exclusively on adding value and let the destiny lines follow their course.

Would that be enough?

Well, in the past, I know that simply creating quality content did NOT generate enough income for me.

If it wasn't for promotional campaigns I made, the audience that looks for my products would never have found me.

When you look at it from a certain perspective, you can think that it's a pity to have to put energy into these promotional steps rather than being able to sit back and wait for people to find my products.

Well, that's the fundamental dilemma that everyone faces in the business world.

Those who don't like marketing would rather put all their energy in creating products.

Same for artists for instance.

For those who like marketing, it's a whole different story because they see it as a creative act by itself.

It's powerful!

It's like a game in rel life!

It is a challenge and it IS exciting.

And... It is a law of life!

40000 years ago, hunting for your prey so that you can eat was a real tough challenge!

In some situations, finding food was easy but very often it required incredible skills, focus, will power, determination, perseverance.

So, the question is: why is life like that?

Why have we evolved as a human race where this competition to "stay alive" is one of the underlying dynamics of life?

Because life IS a training ground!

And when you compete for survival, it triggers resources in you that you didn't even know you had!

It is a way of expanding your consciousness as a human, expanding your skills and abilities.

We can call this the competitive path.

It is a path of mastery!

So, this is what goes on in the business world.

It is like a huge game, highly competitive, in which to succeed, you have to tap into your profound potential as human being.

So, here you have it!

This is why it is EXACTLY the way it is.

Rather than trying to reject these rules, embrace them!

The only way to win is to play the game!

-----------------------

Whaaaaa! I like that! Quite a discovery!

Now, the next question is: from a synergetic point of view, is anything holding me back?

If yes, what?

What could that be?

Yes, I do feel that right now, my mind is not 100% on this flowing with its full power and inspiration.

Why?

First past experiences! Some of my past marketing experiences were challenging. It has to do with having high expectation and not totally breaking through.

Second element: not being 100% aligned with that energy. A part of me is not embracing the rules at 100% or not fully in the game yet.

Third element, possible conflicting interests... For instance, I could put my energy into researching certain topics or publishing more of my books on amazon, travel projects, or a few other possible directions...

In other terms, my mind is invested in other projects.

This means that my energy and my mind are divided.

There could be some subtle influences adding resistance as well.

This means that in my social and professional network there can be energies holding me back.

Another one that plays a role is the lack of experience, skills or knowledge.

This means that there are many aspects of the process which are somehow unclear.

One more... Uncertain outcome. This means that I could be investing a lot energy for very little results.

This last one is basically responding to the law of least energy. I want to save my energy, time and resources and invest them in what has the greatest chances of success.

Another one is that in my activities, I can retreat within less challenging lines of action. This means staying within my comfort zone and use my preserving energy rather than my conquering power.

So, this would be comfort versus risk taking!

Another one just came to my mind: opposing forces!

Basically you have whole systems in place which are aimed at either opposing you or openly making you fail.

For instance, again, imagine yourself 40000 years ago trying to hunt a mammoth with your friends.

This mammoth has been given a survival instinct to defend its life. It will fight and try to kill you!

Nowadays, you have the same type of systems in place in the business world.

For instance if you try to rank higher in google using SEO, google is determined to make you fail by not letting you manipulate the results of a search engine.

In the same line, there is competition with other people or businesses trying to do what you do.

So here it is: opposing forces

So, to summarize, here are these sources of resistance:

Negative past experiences

Conflicting interest

Not 100% ready to play

Negative influences

Knowledge and experience gap

Uncertain outcome

Risk taking mode not fully activated yet

Opposing forces

So, these are 7 core sources of resistance I can identify so far.

One core idea is that for this process to be fun + energetic + successful I must align myself, optimize the way I go for this challenge and make sure that EVERYTHING is in place for a frictionless, fluid experience!

Realized that when someone is looking for a solution, let's say on jealousy or any other coaching topic, finding help and an offer which matches the needs is VERY difficult. Most services are overpriced for the general public + offers are not clear or difficult to access or understand - Right now, the demand does NOT match the offer in most cases...

The author biography is oftentimes the last item we think about as self-published authors. As a result, we may even consider it to be the least important part of our marketing strategy. It's fluff, words to fill in space, right? No, not by a long shot. In many ways, it can be as important as your one-sentence pitch, and it is a key component for you to build your personal brand.

I've developed a few author bios as my career and experience progressed. And looking over them with a critical eye, my very first bio was my most successful. It was short out of necessity, because I didn't bring a lot to the table in the way of credentials. It was for my first book and all I had going for me at the time was that my family claimed to really like it. I knew enough to know that wasn't a great selling point. I sat down and wrote bio after bio trying to make myself sound a lot more important than I really was. The harder I tried, the less authentic the bio read. After literally hours of trying and failing, I set the project aside and walked through my house, trying to figure out who I was. I patted my dog for inspiration. I made sure that cats had food. I flipped through the mail and rolled my eyes at a mortgage statement. I stared at my wedding picture on the mantel, and that's when it hit me. This is who I am. I'm just a regular guy who wants you to read my book. So, I wrote the following bio:

R.W. Ridley lives in Charleston, SC with his beautiful wife, a hyperactive dog, three arrogant cats, and one ugly mortgage.

That was it. I added it to the back cover, and didn't give it another thought. An odd thing started happening. I got e-mails from people telling me they loved my bio. I'd show the book to people at book fairs and signing events, and they'd flip the book over, read the bio, and laugh. They'd walk off with a copy of the book based on the bio. The book has now been on the market for five years, and I still get remarks about the bio. This one was even posted in a recent review:

For that ugly mortgage
Haven't read it yet, but the "ugly mortgage" comment gave me a giggle

I changed my bio for later books because I felt it needed to include information about awards I had won and other books I had published, but I've never received a single comment about those. Credentials are important and include them whenever possible, especially if you're writing as an expert on the topic of the book, but don't use that as an excuse not to connect with your readers.

What's the lesson? Write the bio in third person, but take the opportunity to let it reflect your personality. And by all means, keep it short.

Think you've mastered the art of the author bio? Share it in the comments!

SEO pages was successful as well for a while - right now it's not longer the case - I haven't focused on my optimized pages for a while because the core elements now are external factors.

With hundreds of possible optimized pages to market - hundred of keywords - It's just too time consuming and there isn't an easy to use strategy that will create a break through.

----------

Same story with optimized websites.

At their peak, these websites were bringing alltogether a few hundreds visitors/month.

That's after months of effort and publishing hundred of optimized pages.

In that case the strategy just paid for hosting price. I estimate that all this effort resulted in maybe 10 sales/year max.

Not much! - that's like less than 1% of the total sales volume coming from the pages on the website.

Sure, it did create some buzz and backlinks but simply maintaining the websites, updating, paying for hosting and domain names was a lot for insignificant results.

So, I dropped these sites and redirect now all my efforts to my site.

---------------

Optimized blog posts

That's a solid strategy that did work well 2 years ago.

I managed to boost traffic significantly.

The reason i did not follow up is because the blogging services I was using could have labelled my actions as search engine spam - I got some warning signs from wordpress for instance.

his is still an option I can consider in the future...

-----------

Just to make it clear, I didn't engage in these traffic building tactics lightly.

At the peak of my Adwords campaigns, I had 80 campaigns running, advertising more than 10 different products on my side with close to 100000 keyphrases.

---------

same story with SEO pages - I created around 1000 optimized pages to draw traffic

Same again with targeted websites - I got 12 targeted domain names - created 50-200 optimized pages per domain.

In theory, these strategies should work and I was already imagining the flow of traffic landing on these pages.

Practically, the results were only a small fraction of what they could have been.

I was expecting results 100x higher.

By the way, i did my research and implemented all the SEO elements in the pages are built.

The in site elements were fine - what was missing in that case were the offsite elements with tons of links pointing to my thousands of optimized pages.

Building credibility with backlings for a few pages can work if you have 5 or 10 pages you want to promote.

Doing that for thousands of pages is close to impossible because the process has to look organic to search engines. In practicality I think it's very easy for search engines to recognize when these backlinks are not the result of an organic process, in other terms they are a promotional campaign.

search engines will naturally penalize that because they are at war with people trying to manipulate search results.

Of course they are.

SEO is not outlaw of course but search engines simply don't want you to be able to manipulate results for you to score high.

There is a small window there of course and SEO strategies can still be successful of course.

---------

what about creating rich content and hoping for the best?

Well, doing that on the site is not the best way to go...

For instance, I have now 4000 pages of content on the site - that respresents 1000 page views/day - 1 page is viewed 0.25 times/day on average

I have 400 videos on youtube with 1800 video views/day - 1 video is viewed on average 4.5 times.

That's like 18x more views for the content I put on youtube compared to the one on my site.

same story for MP3s on my Itunes channels.

They are accessed as well much more than web pages.

So, the answer is yes!

Right now, simply creating video content is an effective way to gain exposure.

If I compare all the SEO strategies with my video creation and positing strategies, video worked WAY better than all these strategies.

On top of that, this quality content gives credibility and ads value to the net.

Creating a video is rewarding and fun.

Trying to implement SEO strategies is interesting as well, but it tends to clutter the net and my activity.

Creating 100 videos over a period of 3 months is the equivalent to launching a new Blogging SEO campaign for instance.

The key questions are:

Where do I want to put my energy?

What's the most exciting and rewarding action?

What ads the most value to my audience?

How do I contribute best to the well being and progress on this planet?

The second element is that it takes ages for someone to find the right help!

The challenge you face could have an easy solution if you know where to find that specific help.

For instance, if you need to give a speech and you want to train your delivery with a presentation coach, that's a simple obvious need, right?

I tried just that one and here is what happens:

made a search on google for "presentation skills"

found a video on youtube in top results

watch the video

see a link in the info for the video

click on the link

arrive on an expired domain.

okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay????

By now, I already spent 10 min on this, got a couple of tips from the video but I am still a loooooooooooooooong way from being ready for my presentation.

I still didn't train my skills and am still searching.

Even if I find something interesting, the skill we are talking about - In that case presentation skills - takes time to train.

I believe that in just 2 x 1 hour a 15 min speech can be immensely perfected!

But! You need to find the right person to teach you how to do that!

Someone who will be clear and direct enough to teach you how to behave on stage, what to say and how to say it.

You need a skilled person to help you with that!

You need someone who is a top expert in that skill + is affordable + is reachable.

It is hard as well to train that skill if you are not in person...

ok, tried again to search further.

clicked on another link

arrived on a site with a few tips

see an ad for another site

click on it

arrive on that other site which looks promising

the site is a bit messy

after clicking and surfing around, I can see how challenging it is to even understand what they offer and for what price

then in a LONG page of explanations, I finally find a price

3 hours training for 600 pounds! whouhouuuuuuuu! 600 pounds = $900

So, that's $300/hour!

Then I have to find out how to buy, schedule, are they available in my city, etc.

By now, I am already on the edge of giving up on that skill for various reasons...

First, the price!

Then the challenge to set it up.

It's true, I could kick in with my conquering drive and get it one with it...

BUT, they certainly DON'T make it easy for me!

The prices are not obvious and info is not very intuitively presented!

It's really challenging.

Here is what I would like if I was using their services:

Pricing: $90 for about 2 hours training.

An easy way to test the system before I sign up? not really needed if the price is affordable

A video of the coach I will be working on - I need to know that this person is an EXPERT and that we will easily connect - As well that they are not on an upsell journey and that my success is their priority. In other terms, I want to see they care and that they can take me from where I am to where I want to be - This video is a bit of my test drive.

I need to be sure that what I need will be covered with that budget + within that time frame and that the coach won't waste my time

For such a price, i don't need more hesitation. I would be happy to test their system with that specific speech I want to give and get back to them for more in the future if needed.

I want as well that the coach you helps me is an excellent role model, stable, strong, clean, and healthy.

I would rather see a casual and trendy look rather than a corporate set up.

I would like to do that in a room with a stage and tools set up exactly the way they would be for my presentation.

In other terms, the location for the training must be right.

How many sites actually give me what I want?

Even if I was researching for a couple of hours, I believe that I would maybe find 1 or 2 offers that could come close to what I want. I believe that 90% of sites would not deliver what I want in that form.

So, here is a demand on mys side.

Here are people who are skilled in what I need.

But we do have a SERIOUS problem here because what I want and what is offered does NOT match.

I don't think that this is an isolated case!

I believe that this is the norm in this type of services.

In other areas like:

session with a personal trainer

visit to doctor

visit to vet

visit to shop to buy a product

Etc.

In all these cases, it does work and the offer and delivery process are streamlined.

With the example that I just took (presentation skills) it' a whole different story!

Most of the times, it's really the corporate aura surrounding that kind of services.

They are actually geared towards a VERY corporate audience and it does not LOOK cool.

The general public NEEDS these skills too!

Selling presentation for small business owners

Job interview skills

Presentation skills for students.

Etc.

There is a demand for this but the offer is INEXISTENT.

---------------

So let's check this on my own site and see how I perform on these selling points...

Friday, December 17, 2010

I believe they are unless you are marketing a marketing product to marketers in which case it will usually be well received.

Now, for the common audience and especially in the field I am in, I feel that people are tired of these marketing structures, the long testimonials and sales letters, the calls for actions, the cheap graphics, the fancy price tags + a whole bunch of marketing strategies that are on the edge of ethical.

I noticed in my last efforts that ABSOLUTE simplicity works really well.

it is simple but the way the content is organized now + the navigation is really fantastic I think.

Basically, people can easily find their way around.

The way the content is presented is EXTREMELY consistent.

Programs are clear.

It is uncluttered from ads and distractions.

In other terms, as a resource, it works great!

------------------

Engaging the audience?

That's something I am no longer actively trying to do except in a few sales pages I have left. There are no whistles or flashy designs.

Why? because all of these are actually distractions.

I decided to simply present the content AS IS and let people RELAX with their experience.

In the feed back I got in the past, people mentioned that a lot: they don't want to be aggressed when entering a site!

They want to relax.

Right now, the site is delivering lots of quality content.

Time on page and on site has been consistent.

The reason why traffic is dropping is simply because pages naturally progressively drop in search engines... It's a natural process.

--------------

Engaging audience with newsletter sign up, forums, community?

Well, it is very clear, when people want community, 95% of them already go to selected sites. These are facebook, youtube and twitter.

You have a few forums that are still active out there but board discussions don't really take off any more.

------------

More social media?

That's another myth! On small sites, people don't engage in conversations, chat or contribution.

Why? because there isn't enough momentum on these sites.

so, not manifested on my site yet.

------------

Drop down menus

Another element that I experimented with but that I eventually dropped because of technicalities.

------------

Trouble free membership system

so far the system has been a big success - some extra features could be there but it does what it's supposed to and has been a positive shift to an online member area that really works and that gives clients a good sense of control over their member area

There are many reason for that again and one of them is the fact that maybe visitors miss information from me, that they don't feel the urgency, that the step is too far or that they don't see the value of it.

There is as well a logic behind that.

First it is that the offer is coaching in general, not coaching for a specific topic people can recognize.

So, it is not targeted coaching.

Another one is the fact that when I coach one on one, I help one person.

When I post a video, I help hundreds.

Once the session is finished, the results are intangible and the content is not recorded or available for others to access.

And that's a loss, really!

For the same effort, I can record a video or audio that will be accessed by hundreds of people or I can help just one person.

Monday, December 13, 2010

A lot of an internet user's behavior is a a permanent battle to avoid the ads.

People want information delivered to them!

They way to be entertained and inspired!

They want to be thrilled and excited.

Here is what happens when people see an add:

They are turned off!

They get an instant negative emotional reaction.

They develop ad blindness!

Here is what I feel:

In terms of marketing strategy, advertising kills the relationship with your audience!

It is really that simple!

It creates a reaction in the surfer's mind that says:

"I need to protect myself from that because their agenda is to get my money in whatever way they can"

"They are trying to seduce me with their message and if I do what they ask me to do, I will lose money and end up with stuff I don't need"

The self talk a person has which is associated with advertising is bad! Really bad!

The emotional response is 95% negative.

Then, there is a tiny bit of curiosity.

And when curiosity wakes up, most people will try to kick that curiosity out!

They will fight that emotion because they don't want to be seduced by an ad!

They know the advertisers are trying to put a message in their minds and they fight with that specific force.

In other terms, it's a conflicting battle!

It's a battle of energy between the advertiser and the prospect.

That's the type of reaction that happens in 95% of the cases.

Advertising misses the point in most cases!

So, the question is: if advertising the way it was done doesn't work, what does?

Right now, I have a website and people come to it for information!

They get something from it!

It's a directory of resources that is 95% free and open to everyone.

It does exactly what it is supposed to do.

it could do more of the same?

Absolutely!

There could be more info on any topic!

And it would not fundamentally change what the site does.

There are MANY things that can be perfected.

The thing though is that it won't radically change the response I get.

What I need now is a NEW way of communicating with my audience that will create connection!

I am looking for NEW ideas, new formats and new ways of helping, connecting with and reaching my audience.

Realize that the past model has been like this:

From the website owners, it goes often like this:

"Let's get people to visit the site and offer them content - while they watch this content, let's get them distracted by ads so that they lose track on what they try to do and check the ads we offer"

For the surfer's perspective, it sounds like:

"Let's check this info and be blind to anything that is not info. I know that these guys will try to sell me something and the only way to stay on top is to REFUSE to play and waste my time! I need to PROTECT myself against these messages and go straight to the only thing I want: the piece of info I am looking for"

That's a selling strategy which DOES NOT work anymore!

It is OUTDATED!

In that model, you have 2 agendas which are VERY different!

The audience and the business - 2 agendas that don't match.

That's unless you have an online shop that already says: BUY.

People know that when they enter a shop, they already engage in a commercial relationship.

They are possible prospects, they know that and accept it.

It works!

Now, when you enter in a library and have someone trying to sell you something, that's where it doesn't match!

Here is another one: telemarketers trying to sell you stuff by calling you.

Why is it annoying? because your phone is a social and practical tool! not a shop!

It invades your space and privacy and the one who market that way try to shift you into shopping mode when you are not.

So, certain environments are appropriate for selling, some other ARE NOT!

Here are more examples: advertising your products on facebook or youtube doesn't work.

It can a bit if you are a company and pay for ad space.

BUT if you start actively selling stuff in your social space, this is it!

probably 95% of people are turned off by it!

You can get a way with doing it a few times but if you repeat that often, you will REALLY irritate your friends!

Same if you go to a social event and try to engage into commercial transactions, actively selling something!

Again... Massive turn off!

Can you see how it works?

So, back to my site:

The site is NOT presented like a shop!

It is a vast set of resources.

It is a space where people can get lots of positive vibes and inspiration for free!

This is why over the years, I simplified the pages and removed distractions to come up with the simplest and most accessible way to be on the site SAFELY and without having to fight with distracting messages.

These are conscious choices I made over the years to actually provide content that everyone can use.

Now, I can either leave the site EXACTLY the way it is now or try to ad new features or elements to it.

That's the open question I have now and need to explore...

By the way, the site represents only 10% of my exposure online.

90% of those who access my material access it through other mediums and sources like online videos or podcasts.

-----------

Back to ads...

The thing is that most people who try to sell something will use ads on their site.

It's so programmed in people's minds that they simply do it when in fact, I believe it REALLY does not work when trying to establish connection!

99.9% of the advertising exposures fail!

In other terms, they DON'T lead a successful transaction or exchange.

It is like bombarding your audience with a message that doesn't work.

Things change!

what worked some years ago might no longer work now.

That's ok!

Adverting on website does not successfully create a relationship with my audience.

The response to ANY THING I advertise with side ads or more invasive ads simply generates an insignificant response!

That's a FACT!

So, the answer is CLEAR!

To create relationship, I need to engage my audience in a VERY different way!